Inter Milan President’s Legal Woes Prevent Securing New Loan To Keep Suning At Inter Milan | OneFootball

The legal woes of Steven Zhang may be the main reason why Suning have not been able to extend their time as owners of Inter Milan.

This according to today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews.

In recent weeks, Inter owners Suning and President Steven Zhang have attempted to secure a massive new loan from US fund PIMCO.

This would be for the purpose of allowing the current owners to refinance their debt to Oaktree Capital.

Doing so would be necessary for Suning to remain at the helm of Inter.

Should the current Inter owners default on their debt – as now looks inevitable – their shares in the club would pass into the hands of Oaktree.

There were reports of advanced talks between PIMCO and Suning. But these broke down.

The question, then, is why.

There have been rumours that Oaktree had obstructed the talks in some way.

Then, there is also the matter of the tight timeline. Naturally, it became more and more difficult to reach a definitive agreement as the deadline on the Oaktree loan got closer and closer.

Steven Zhang Legal Woes At Heart Of Suning Inability To Keep Inter Milan

According to Tuttosport, however, a key reason why Suning and Zhang were unable to reach an agreement with PIMCO concerns the Inter President’s outside legal woes.

The Chinese Construction Bank Asia (CCBA) are seeking €320 million from the Inter President.

This is to collect on debts that have no relation to Inter.

Several rulings have went in favour of the CCBA, including from a court in Milan.

This, Tuttosport, raised red flags regarding Zhang’s reliability as a debt-holder.

That is the case for PIMCO, and for Oaktree.

So from Oaktree’s perspective, the US fund were reluctant to grant Zhang anything more than a very short-term extension on their existing loan.

This would be to allow Suning to sell Inter. Then, there would be no doubt of the Chinese company’s having the liquidity to repay their debt to Oaktree in full.

And from PIMCO, there was a reluctance to seal the deal with Suning and Zhang given the Inter President’s other legal problems, reports Tuttosport.